Cardinals stun Rangers to take lead in baseball World Series

The St Louis Cardinals have beaten the Texas Rangers in the opening game of baseball's World Series. The score at the Busch stadium in Saint Louis was 3-2, with the hosts taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The home team were 2-0 up after Lance Berkman hit a pitch down the line and into right field, and two runners came around to score.

However, the Rangers were level after one swing of the bat. With a man on first Mike Napoli spanked a homerun to make it 2-2 at the top of the fifth.

But at the bottom of the sixth inning Allen Craig's RBI single won the contest.

Craig entered the game for St. Louis ace starter Chris Carpenter, who pitched six innings and allowed two runs on five hits while striking out four Texas batters.

"It was a great performance (by Chris Carpenter),” St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said after the game.

“They are a very good hitting team – if you don't make a lot of pitches they are going to bang you around. I thought early in the game, you know, as cold as it was those balls were – for both pitchers – very slick, they were having a little gripping thing but they both of them just competed and they both did a good job and, speaking about Carp, he was exactly what we needed," La Russa said.

This was the Cardinals' 106th World Series game, breaking a tie with the Dodgers and Giants for the second-most in history, while the Yankees lead the pack with 225.

Game Two of the best-of-seven series is again in St Louis on Thursday.